Did you know that every second, there are more than 63,000 searches on Google? That makes it more than 5 billion searches every day. In 2019, people visited Google more than 62 billion times, making it the most visited site on the web.
As of July 2019, Google had a 92.18% share of the search market, which shows the importance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). If you want your marketing campaign to be successful, you have to ensure that SEO is a big part of it. Without it, you can kiss your dreams of ever becoming big goodbye.
The problem here is that search engines are evolving so fast that it is challenging to keep up with them. We find new updates and new practices to consider every week when optimizing our website for search engines.
And if that wasn’t enough, you have to consider other elements like social media marketing, email marketing, and more.
So, what do you do? Do you just give up due to the magnitude of the task ahead of you? Do you create a haphazard plan and see where it takes you? Or, do you act smart and find out the latest SEO trends so you can reap the results without doing too much work? Given this choice, we would all opt for the last one here.
And the best part is that they are neither time-consuming nor complex. And if you do implement them, they will make your SEO work highly efficient.
So, what are these SEO hacks you have to know to have a successful marketing campaign? Read on to find out.
Create a Sitemap
Now, this should have been a no-brainer, but a lot of websites still don’t utilize it. People still don’t realize the importance of a sitemap. What is a sitemap? It is, as the name suggests, a basic map of your entire website.
You can view the layout, all the website parts, the connections between those parts, and more. It is especially vital if your website is a new one and doesn’t have many external or internal links in it.
Fortunately, you don’t have to be too technical to generate a sitemap. All you need is to search for the best sitemap generator tools, and you are good to go.
Search engines like DuckDuckGo, Google, Bing, and Yahoo use these sitemaps to search your website’s pages. If the website is new, the sitemap is a big help to search engines. They use it to find out the pages on your platform.
Or, you might own an e-commerce platform and have thousands upon thousands of product pages. Search engines might have a difficult time finding all the pages. That’s where sitemaps show their importance.
Focus on Your Cornerstone Content
What is cornerstone content? It is the best piece of content that you have on your website. This content has to be:
- Up to date
- Relevant
- Comprehensive
- Evergreen
You want people to land on your cornerstone content when they search for specific keywords. Make sure that you pack as much value in that content as you can. Also, ensure that you have other options for your visitors like ‘popular posts’ and ‘related blogs.’
For example, if you have a digital marketing agency and have written an SEO guide, you have to make sure that everyone who comes to your website sees the blog link.
Remember Your Footer
There was a time when web admins used to put all sorts of text about their companies, like products and services, in the footer. Sadly, those days are long gone. Google’s algorithms have caught on to these practices, and now, doing something like that might negatively affect your rankings.
But that doesn’t mean that the footer is a lost cause. It can still be helpful. Give links to what the people are searching for and ensure that the anchor text is as descriptive as you can make it. Don’t want to list your company’s products and services? That’s okay. You can add links to your cornerstone content, blog, or other resources.
Use a Keyword Research Tool
There are some keyword research tools in the market that you can use to determine the keywords you want to rank for. Once you check the tools, you will find out that you already rank for some of them.
Now you have to find out more long-tail phrases that are related to your original keywords. Take these long-tail phrases and incorporate them throughout your pages strategically. Make sure that those keywords occur organically.
You don’t want to stuff them all in there. It should have a smooth flow, and more importantly, it should make sense to the visitors.
Seek Help From Polly
Do you know Polly? We are talking about Amazon Polly. It is an AI-based speech recognition tool that will read out the page’s entire content to your visitors. Believe us when we say it helps in increasing the dwell time on your website.
If you didn’t know it before, know it now. As far as SEO is concerned, dwell time is a significant factor. If someone just clicks and goes away, that can bring the ranks down. For the ranks to go up, the visitors must stay a while.
Now, some of your visitors will read your posts, but others might not. For these people, listening instead of reading is a great alternative.
Build a Brand
Search engines, especially Google, are all about E-A-T (Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness) nowadays. That is why when you increase your brand’s value, you also give your SEO campaign a much-needed boost. The stronger the brand, the higher Google will rank your website.
And, how do you increase your brand value? When people type your brand’s name in the Google search box or the URL on their browsers, it translates to higher brand value. Ensure that you integrate it with your email marketing campaign and let people know whenever you create new content or update an existing one.
You have to make sure that you keep these people coming back again and again.
Conclusion
SEO is not something that you can ignore anymore. If you have an online brand and want to take it to the top, you have to focus on your SEO campaign. It will help your position on the SERPs and boost your overall digital marketing campaign.
So, what are you waiting for? Use the hacks mentioned above to make your SEO easier and your ranking higher.
